“Matthew H. Kulke, MD, MMSc, has been a leader in the development of new therapies and clinical management strategies for patients with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs).

“In a recent milestone, Kulke presented phase III clinical trial data at the 2015 European Cancer Congress indicating that telotristat etiprate, a novel tryptophan hydroxylase inhibitor, improves diarrhea control in combination with a somatostatin analog for patients with metastatic NETs and inadequately controlled carcinoid syndrome. In the clinical arena, Kulke serves as co-chair for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines panel on NETs and also is an active member of medical society advisory boards and task forces related to NETs.”

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“Patients with non-small cell lung cancer which has spread to the brain could be spared whole brain radiotherapy as it makes little or no difference to how long they survive and their quality of life according to a Cancer Research UK-funded clinical trial published today in The Lancet(link is external).

“Around 45,500 people are diagnosed with lung cancer in the UK every year and an estimated 85 per cent of cases are non-small cell lung cancer. Up to 30 per cent of patients with non-small cell lung cancer have the disease spread to the brain.”

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“The developer of neratinib, Puma Biotechnology, has announced the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has validated the marketing authorization application for neratinib as a potential extended adjuvant therapy for patients with HER2-positive early stage breast cancer following 12 months of trastuzumab (Herceptin).

“The validation confirms the completion of the submission process and starts the formal review by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) and the subsequent final approval decision by the European Commission.

“The application was based on findings from the phase III ExteNET study, which were published in the Lancet Oncology. In this study, extended treatment with neratinib demonstrated a 2-year disease-free survival (DFS) rate of 93.9% compared with 91.6% in the placebo arm, representing a 33% improvement versus placebo (HR, 0.67; P = .009).”

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“The loss of CHD1, one of the most frequently mutated genes in prostate tumors, sensitizes human prostate cancer cells to different drugs, including PARP inhibitors. This suggests CHD1 as a potential biomarker for targeted prostate cancer therapy. These are the results of a study published in EMBO Reports.

“A team of researchers in Germany and Denmark led by Steven Johnsen, Professor at the University Medical Center Göttingen, Germany, used human prostate cancer cell lines and depleted them of the DNA-binding protein CHD1. The CHD1 gene is mutated in 15-27% of all prostate tumors, and such mutations correlate with chromosomal instability and poor prognosis for prostate cancer patients. The researchers could demonstrate that CHD1-depleted cells have defects in homologous recombination (HR), an important mechanism for repairing breaks in the DNA molecule. The data indicate that CHD1’s normal function is the loosening of DNA around break sites in order to facilitate the access of HR repair proteins. Importantly, like cancer cells with other mutations in the HR repair pathway, CHD1-depleted prostate cancer cells proved to be hypersensitive to chemotherapeutic drugs causing DNA breaks, such as Mitomycin C, Irinotecan and PARP inhibitors.”

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“Luke Nordquist, MD, FACP, a urologic medical oncologist and CEO of the Urology Cancer Center and GU Research Network, gives an overview of the Alpharadin in Symptomatic Prostate Cancer Patients (ALSYMPCA) study, and he discusses ongoing trials examining the use of radium-223 dichloride (Xofigo) in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).”

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“A team of Cleveland Clinic-Mayo Clinic researchers has shown for the first time that patients with advanced prostate cancer are more likely to die earlier from their disease if they carry a specific testosterone-related genetic abnormality.

“The findings, published in the September 2016 edition of The Lancet Oncology, suggest that a specific, inherited polymorphism, or inherited genetic change, in the HSD3B1 gene renders standard therapy for metastatic prostate cancer less effective. The researchers anticipate that the findings will lead to a simple blood test to detect the presence of the polymorphism, personalizing cancer treatment and indicating which patients may need more aggressive treatment.”

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